Geocachers Care – “One Ring to Rule Them All”

Erik Hulse, AgTitan, gets straight to the point, “This is a story I will be telling for the rest of my life, a story I will never forget.”

The story he’s talking about – and will talk about for decades to come – begins on the soft, muddy bank of a Texas river. AgTitan and Kenny Wade, GeoGeex, hiked through a park on an early April geocaching adventure.

Their first obstacle would be little more than a slithering side note. AgTitan says, “The hike was several miles and the snakes were out in force. GeoGeex spotted the first snake of the twelve we saw that day. We both had several close calls, almost stepping on several snakes during the day, but thankfully we averted disaster with the snakes.”

But an attempt to cross a river set the stage for a good deed that AgTitan could little imagine. He fell hard into the water. He says, “According to GeoGeex, the high pitched wail and spastic water dance was a sight to behold. We learned several things during the encounter… like… when your hand hits the muddy, clay-like material on bottom of a creek, Aggie rings easily slip off the finger!” AgTitan lost his beloved “Aggie ring.” It’s a Texas A&M University alumni ring. He says, “It sobered the mood the rest of the day.”

But AgTitan put a call out for help. He posted the coordinates of his fall into the river on a local geocaching Facebook page, jokingly calling the location, “One Ring to Rule Them All.”

Ground zero (GZ) where the ring was lost

Jeff Cruser, Z_Malloc, saw the post and reacted, “I knew that I could not let a fellow Aggie (Texas A&M Alumni) lose his ring without at least hunting for it! So I packed up my metal detector from work and loaded up the cachepack for a water trip.”

But Z_Malloc wasn’t prepared for the jumble of fallen trees when he reached the location where the ring was lost. He says “As I approached GZ (the coordinates) I saw that it was not just a simple narrow stream with a single log to search around, but it was to be a whole blockade of logs and other submerged debris with small rapids flowing by.”

Z_Malloc says that time was crucial. Rains were expected later in the day which could wash the ring downriver. He says, “I made some logical guesses about where the mighty AgTitan may have fallen in and focused on the partially submerged log in the middle of the stream. I was really glad I was alone because I bet it was quite funny to see me bent over at the waist in thigh deep water running a metal detector in one hand and feeling the bottom with the other. But after about ten minutes, and on my third hit on the metal detector, my hand brushed something in the moderately packed clay on the bottom.”

Z_Malloc recovers the ring

Z_Malloc pulled a silt covered ring from the water and kept his sense of humor intact. “I had the ring in my hand. So as I dragged the cache (ring) to the surface. I knew I was going to be FTF…..but NOOOOO the log (inscription) read Erik J. Hulse. All that work and to not get the FTF! So feeling all depressed, I tossed the ring back in the water for the next person to find and walked away. Just kidding.”

Z_Malloc says he got a great story out of the adventure and helped a former Texas A&M alumni and geocacher.

AgTitan says that he only found out the ring was recovered when GeoGeex called hours later, “Kenny (geogeex) called me when I was at work because Jeff (Z_Malloc) posted on Facebook that he found my ring. I didn’t believe Kenny at first, and kept asking him if he was joking with me. When I realized it was for real, I found Jeff’s number and called thanking him.”

AgTitan says he didn’t just receive his ring back – he also earned a new respect for the geocaching community, “It is amazing what geocachers (and Aggies!) will do for one another, even when you hardly know someone. TFTR (Thanks for the ring!) Jeff!!”

great story, found my first geocache yesterday, my buddy kept talking about them and finally took me on an adventure. Now I cannot wait to go find more.. plenty to be found in Nova Scotia.

Dale Bryant

I hope someone placed a cache (near) there.

Drewsilla01

Geocachers to the rescue!!!

Familyhix

Awesome

ATMA

What a fantastic story. Man, talk about a needle in the haystack? We enjoyed the read.
ATMA

http://twitter.com/NativTxn Denise

Gig ‘em Class of ’92! Whoop!

AK Aggie

Gig ‘Em Aggies!

Sharky94

Awesome! Should hook a travel bug to that ring and drop it in a cache…lol

BaytownBert

I know them intrepid fellars!

Olemorten63

Just fantastic. :):)

Happy Easter and happy hunting everybody

Greetings from “olemorten63″, Norway

christy

Awesome!

shellyJ17

First giggle of the morning. Wow!! What a gift from a complete stranger only to turn into an awesome life long friend and fellow geocacher. I’m telling everyone I know this story and thanks for sharing! CACHE ON!!

BaytownBert

We folks in the Houston area are fortunate to have a Forum (Houston Geocaching Society) where we share info and do mashups. These folks are all friends of mine thanks to the HGS.

viennasfinest

When I read the title I thought it was about the ring my partner lost on a Cache location… Might do the same and post the coordinates!

Little.Miss.Speedy

We had a very similar experiance. As we reached the end of a 10yr event series, we reach out last cache after a very successful day my friend and fellow geocacher relised he had lost his wedding ring somewhere along the trail. We had a search but was very difficult as we had no idea where it was lost and the day was getting on. We had to give in but informed the organiser who told us that somebody had already fount it and it was returned the next day to a very happy husband and wife.

Sam Mockford

What an awesome adventure, and a new friendship, too!!

Adam Mcgrath

That’s what us geocahers do best ” look out for each other”

pastor_B

love this story; thanks for sharing; gives hope for all those who have lost something meaningful and valuable

Really a fantastic story Eric,you have shared here…Getting the ring back is itself a unbelievable thing to believe…Also the guys who help in finding this ring have done a great job…Cheer up guys….

Smokey Bear Collector

Great story. I’m thinking of doing something similar to this as I recently lost my mind while searching for a well hidden geocache.

Hawk129

ALthough I’m no geocacher, I recently lost my aggie ring along the road by my house. The winds were severe and caused me to be unsuccessful at finding it. After a good rain several weeks later, I went to look again and found it sitting exactly where I thought I lost it, in an area I had searched many, many times. It is a horrible feeling when you lose it, but an indescribable one when you find it again!!!

LostQ

AMAZING!

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